


Alone, Together.

by vaultfox



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, References to Torture, being captured
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-28 01:22:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10820772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaultfox/pseuds/vaultfox
Summary: Cassian and Jyn are sent to Lessu, the capital of Ryloth which is currently still under the Hutt's rule. Their mission is to meet with one of Cassian's contacts who can help liberate the enslaved Twi'lek's, in hopes to recruit many for the Rebellion who suffered many losses on Hoth.





	Alone, Together.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Brilliant_But_Scary_Bad_Wolf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brilliant_But_Scary_Bad_Wolf/gifts).



> For [@jessicafuckingjones](http://www.jessicafuckingjones.tumblr.com) for the Rebelcaptain May the Fourth exchange! I HOPE YOU ENJOY AND HAPPY STAR WARS DAYY!!!!!
> 
> They asked for some angsty Cassian + Jyn being captured/tortured, hope I delivered :) As much as I love fics that include that (in fact, my prompt for the exchange was VERY similar!) I have NEVER written torture before, so a lot of it is kind of vague to avoid being too triggering.

The alleyway was cramped, dust and forgotten fabric scraps littered everywhere. It wasn’t the ideal place to camp out, but standing in the open of Lessu’s barren market place would have drawn ire. They were lucky their disguises got them over the plasma bridge, and they didn’t want to chance anything.

Their contact was due to arrive any moment anyways, behind the jewelry stand, near the Twi’lek’s pop-up galley. There were worse places to hide.

And it smelled good, whatever the Twi’lek was cooking, though at this point anything smelled good. Cassian couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten something other than a ration bar. Their contact was late, two days late in fact, and it had been all the pair of them had survived on. He’d begun to lose hope that they would ever show.

Of course, he couldn’t. Not when Jyn hadn’t lost hers yet.

He’d forgotten how humid Ryloth was, the forests and greenery a pleasant reminder of Yavin, and it made something twist in his chest. Since their evacuation to Hoth, and subsequent evacuation _off_ of Hoth, the Alliance had little to call home aside from the Rebel Fleet. For a moment, he let himself pretend he was home.

Though, had he been far from it? He looked over towards Jyn, still fiddling with her holster, frustrated that she couldn’t un-snap it properly, and let slip a wry smile.

“What?” she looked up, her expression blank. “Something funny?”

She was never one to take a compliment or sentiment, so he kept his thoughts to himself.

“Nothing, just … nothing.”

“Sure,” she went back to her holster, unclipping the leather holding in her blaster.

He wished he could have voiced what he’d thought, but now wasn’t the time. Out of the corner of his eye, his gaze breaking briefly from her fumbling fingers, he saw their contact waiting.

\--

They waited a few moments, scanning the market place for any new faces, ones that hadn’t passed by their small glimpse of Lessu, ensuring their contact hadn’t brought along back-up.

Kind of like they had.

“I have to go in alone,” she broke the silence, not looking up at him as she spoke. Her fingers tugged at the stone underneath her shirt absentmindedly before she continued, “She was only expecting one of us.”

“Right, so _I’ll_ go in,” he countered.

The noise she made was neither a laugh nor a scoff, but something in-between.

Her fingers flicked back to the blaster at her hip, pulling it from the stained leather. Cassian stared at her, dumfounded, her hand outstretched for him to take it.

“What are you –“

“She _also_ was expecting us unarmed, or do you not remember that part of Draven’s briefing?”

“Yes, but, that doesn’t … you shouldn’t go in without –“

“I’ll be _fine_ ,” he felt a weight in his palm, she had pushed the blaster into his grip, her other hand wrapping his fingers around the metal. “Besides, I have you watching my back, right?”

He swallowed hard, eyes flicking up to meet hers. “Of course.”

She flashed him a quick smile, gone as soon as he’d realized it, and he watched as she turned into the market place without another word.

He wasn’t sure how long he’d be able to hide in the shadows, but for Jyn, he figured he could manage.

\--

Lucky for Cassian, he didn’t need to hide long.

Unlucky for Cassian, it was for all the wrong reasons.

He watched it unfold in slow motion; the blaster striking Jyn’s skull with a blood-curdling crack, just as Cassian’s blaster bolt connected with their informant’s shoulder. Both tumbled towards dirt, their bodies crumpling in at awkward angles, and Cassian briefly registered his body moving forward to catch Jyn’s shoulders before meeting the ground.

She made no noise, no twitch or grunt of pain. Instead, Cassian did.

What Cassian thought was a second felt like hours, shaking her shoulders lightly and calling out to her in various states of alarm, before common sense reeled him back in. He traced the side of her face, examining her wound carefully with the pad of his thumb. Carefully, he let his fingers run through her hair and down her neck, feeling for _– but not hoping to find_ – the familiar slick feel of blood.

She seemed clear, that was until the air hissed through his teeth, finding a thin stream of blood trailing down from inside her ear.

He bit back a flash of panic when she didn’t react to his touch, sliding his palm gently behind her neck. She was warm, the pulse at her neck still beating steadily, if only a touch slower than normal. They were alone, for now, the vendors acting as if they’d witnessed nothing. He shouldn’t move her for fear of causing her worse pain, but he had to leave and he had to leave _now._

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, for himself moreso than Jyn. That he wasn’t quick enough, aware enough to kill the informant before he’d gotten to her. His knees strained with the weight of her, and he pushed the fleeting thought of _dead weight_ far from his mind. Her head fell lazily into his chest and he took care not to jostle her, his arms holding her tighter than anything he could remember.

“You’ll be alright,” he mumbled, almost incoherently. She _would_ be alright, had to be. He wouldn’t let another thought overwrite the possibility, he just had to find his way back to the ship.

“Kay,” he fumbled with his commlink, whispering into his forearm and Jyn’s seemingly at once. When he didn’t reply promptly enough, his next command was strained and angry. “ _Kay!_ We’re heading to the ship now, we’ve been compromised. Jyn’s hurt.”

“Certainly,” Kay responded, almost too sure of himself.

Cassian turned back towards the alleyway, his quickest route out, and ran.

\--

Jyn was still heavy in his arms, showing no sign of consciousness or struggle. It was wrong, so very wrong, all the fight gone from her. His breath had become haggard and quick from running, like he couldn’t quick drag in enough air, but he still had so much further to go.

He wouldn’t leave her behind, not when there was still a chance.

“Kaytoo. Kay, come in,” he strained to speak over the pounding of his footsteps.

The droid answered his unspoken question. “Cassian, the ship is just outside the city. I cannot bring down the defenses, they won’t allow me to enter.”

“Alright, I’m almost there. Just keep the engines running.”

“Understood.”

\--

The Hutt that stood in his path paid no mind to the weight in his arms, the panicked way his voice demanded to be let through, or the way he fought to grab for his blaster, with Jyn still perched in his arms.

The Hutt only wanted one thing; _them._

He couldn’t understand him, a language foreign to his tongue but terrifying all the same. The Twi’lek _slaves beside him came into his peripheral, surrounding him, tugging Jyn from his arms._

He wouldn’t let go, fingers digging furiously into her flesh. He _couldn’t_ let go.

And he didn’t. He felt her weight fall on top of him, as he fell to the dirt, the Twi’lek’s pulling what felt like rope around his neck, his vision turning white.

He didn’t let his eyes close until he felt her familiar weight sag into him, her heart still pounding steadily against his, and let darkness consume him.

\--

He woke briefly and in spurts, never long enough to discern his location. The ground was hard and dusty, colder than Hoth if that was even possible. With what little consciousness he had, he listened. He heard breathing, rough and shallow, too far away. It wasn’t his own, he’d realized that after the fourth time he woke. No, this was someone else, someone small.

_Jyn._

He tried, his mouth formed the syllables but his voice didn’t work. Too dry, too gravely, how long had they been in …. wherever they were? Too long, he surmised.

She groaned, pained and long, and heard footsteps far away, surrounding her.

“Erso, you,” a foreign voice grunted in Basic. He pried his eyes open, tiny slits to make out the scene across from him.

Her body, _her tiny body_ , limp and lifeless, being dragged away by two chained Twi’lek’s. Too many questions stuck in his throat --- Had they seen to her head wound? Had she woken since they were brought here? They shouldn’t be pulling her away, she should be kicking and screaming and not ---

“No,” he groaned, so low he almost didn’t hear himself. He’d found his voice, and before losing it again he shouted louder. “Leave her, you want me.”

There was laughter and a thud, _her body_. He swallowed the thought.

Footsteps padded towards him, and his bindings released from the wall he was attached, his body slumping forwards towards the ground. He curled in on himself, as much as his muscles would allow, trying to avoid whatever lashing he was to get today.

As long as it was him. The first of the day was the worst, the captor’s strength renewed from sleep. As long as it was him _. As long as it was him._

They forced his knees from his chest, turning him on his stomach. He closed his eyes, feeling his chest pressed into the floor by a hardened boot. He imagined the pressure was Jyn, suffocating him as he had fallen days prior, still alive, still warm in his arms.

Before he fell under again, he thought he heard a voice. Poised, mechanical. Too far away.

Cold arms wrapped around his, and though he knew he shouldn’t, should have fought against them, he fell into them willingly, the cold a comfort to the burning lesions along his skin.

\--

“Cassian?”

He could feel her thumb, calloused and warm, running along his hairline. She smelt sterile, medicinal, and her fingertips had the tell-tale film of bacta coating her skin. He smiled, or felt that he’d smiled.

They were alive. She was alive.

He must have smiled, because her voice came closer, the warm breathe a respite along his temple.

“Cassian, are you awake?”

She didn’t let him answer, instead nuzzling herself into the hollow of his neck, the place he lay open only to her. An arm wrapped along his shoulder, pulling herself deeper into his chest, a contented noise rumbling low in her chest.

He’d do it all over again, take whatever beatings or pain was meant for her, as long as she was safe.

Finally, she’d grown tired of his quiet, asking again, “Cassian, you there?”

He struggled with the wires attached to his arm, his arm heavy with the weight of bruises and bacta treatments alike, but once his fingers stretched through her hair, flowing free of the usual bun she’d kept it in, all the pain it had taken to get him there melted away.

“Jyn,” his cheek fell into her hair, and she felt her let loose a ragged breath.

“Thank you,” she muttered, burrowing herself ever closer into his neck.

He smiled into her hair, breathing in the scent of her. “How?”

That got him a laugh, and he wished in that moment he could bottle the sound, return to it whenever he needed it. He hoped that he could hear it again, could keep making her happy, to laugh.

“Kaytoo, the bridge.” she breathed, and he felt her crane her neck upwards, a kiss pressed to the side of his mouth. “He told me, once I came to this morning.”

His heart clenched, at not being the one to be there when she woke. That she had to wake to him still sleeping, still far away. At least Kaytoo was there for her.

“You’re apparently not the only one who’s good at reprogramming.”

They shared a laugh, and he’d changed his mind; it was this, _this_ sound, this feeling that he wished he could bottle, to savor for another time. When he needed it most, when the hope had waned from his bones.

They fell asleep in the other’s arms, their breathing and soft beep of his heart monitor all that broke the silence surrounding them.

Soft, warm and at peace.

Alive, together.

**Author's Note:**

> The timeline on this probably doesn't match up (with Ryloth and the slavery of the Twi'lek's) but I figured it was close enough. And again, apologies for the stall in my writing ... I've had a heck of a month lately (and I just came down with mono sooooo woo!), but I'm getting back into the swing of things!
> 
> Find me on tumblr !![ vaultfox](http://www.vaultfox.tumblr.com).


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